Includes bibliographical references (pages 287-301) and index

Historical background -- The Colfax Massacre -- Black resistance -- Contempt of court -- Brownsville -- The NAACP -- Continued white resistance -- Leo Frank -- The Waco horror -- The U.S. Supreme Court and due process -- The blowtorch killings at Duck Hill -- Cultural shifts -- Martyrs before and after 1954 -- Byron De La Beckwith -- Impact and legacy -- United States v. Shipp -- Moore, et al. v. Dempsey -- The Scottsboro boys -- Brown v. Mississippi -- "The South kills another Negro" -- The taxicab lynching -- Emmett Till -- Key people, laws, and concepts

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This title uses the historical experience of African Americans as a case study to examine America's legacy of racial violence. It analyzes key trials of people charged with racially inspired murders-from the Colfax Massacre to the murder of Medgar Evers to the dragging death of James Byrd, Jr. in Jasper, Texas. It includes: an exploration of Supreme Court justices' decisions as they changed their minds about the the role of due process in state trials; a presentation of statistics on lynching and the death penalty; analysis of how the media's increased attention to trials of racial violence resulted in fairer verdicts and laws against "hate crimes"; an A-to-Z listing of important people, terms, legislation, and organizations; and a documents section containing court decisions, magazine stories, and personal accounts

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